Following the cancellation of their last game, University of Sunderland’s Rugby 1st’s lock, Aaron Keelan doesn’t believe the cancellation will affect the team ahead of their match tomorrow with University of Huddersfield 1st’s.

Keelan was confident of a Sunderland win in their last match with second bottom University of Sheffield before a rain affected pitch meant the game was postponed.

After what has been a disappointing season to date, Keelan said: “Following the win the previous week the team as a whole were very disappointed that the game was called off, especially since we had a full squad of players available.

“The team were confident but not too confident as we knew our opponents were a well drilled side.”

Sunderland currently sit bottom of the table and face an uphill battle with their remaining fixtures but have reason to be optimistic with three of their last five fixtures to be played at Ashbrooke Sports Club, where the Wearsider’s recorded their only win to date.

When asked if the momentum had been stopped following the cancellation, Keelan revealed: “No it has not. From what the captain and coach have said to us, we will keep up the momentum and will remain motivated for our next game.

“The season as a whole has been fairly disappointing due to our run of results but we seem to be improving as a team.

“I’m expecting that we as a team should be able to field a strong side for the rest of our matches and to have increasing numbers at training, which will lead to wins on the pitch.”